While multiple genres have flourished on the Switch, even though many had a rough start out of the gate, the racing space has continued to be under-represented. That isn’t to say there aren’t some solid titles out there, whether more mainstream or indie, but there’s a lack of choice that’s hard to ignore. One offshoot sub-category of the genre that has only seen a few titles (most notably the early Fast RMX) has been futuristic racers, which is odd given Nintendo’s own past success with F-Zero, and then other popular titles made by third parties over the years like the Extreme-G and Wipeout series as well. For fans of that style of racing we now at least have Phantom Spark to add to the list.

The focus in this racer is maintaining your momentum at all costs, so it absolutely places an emphasis on technique. While in many titles you can get away with being overzealous going into corners, counting on a barrier to help contain you, in this game making any significant contact like that will sap your speed quite a bit, and may prevent you from getting to the finish line within the specified timeframe. Thankfully, once you get accustomed to the feel of the controls they’re quite intuitive and you’ll be able to drift in turns effectively, as long as you attack them the right way. What I appreciate is that in order to help people understand and develop those vital techniques there are periodic challenges that will open up, each being hyper-focused on one specific concern. Since these require you to truly master to clear them you’ll thankfully have the option to opt out and return to them later, but it is an effective way to try to help people refine their core skills that are needed for success in the game.

Where there’s a bit of disappointment, at least for me, is that this is always a solo racing affair, which can make the experience feel a bit sterile. Granted, there will always be ghosts to race against, representing your own best time, circuit champions, or even racers from the online leaderboards, but it isn’t quite the same. Where that’s a positive, is that you can observe and learn from those ghosts, which always provides an opportunity to refine your own technique and improve. What stinks is that you lose that element of unpredictability and the thrill of fun from trading a little paint and tackling an opponent in real time. Since this move isn’t unusual in more technique-based racers it isn’t crippling, but if you enjoy a more head-to-head version of racing, this will undoubtedly sting a little.

All things considered this is a very solid technical racer with some futuristic flair, and a progressively-growing degree of challenge throughout. Its tracks are appropriately varied and often quite challenging, with plenty of banks and incline changes to further add to the tests of your skills in navigating the tracks as effectively as possible. If you normally enjoy trading a little paint, or even prefer a more combat-oriented version of racing, this won’t be a good match though. If, however, you enjoy refining your technique and working to optimize your times, the CPU opponents and online leaderboards will likely keep you happy and busy.